Building a Leader-full Movement: PWN Welcomes Co-Executive Directors Venita Ray and Naina Khanna

March 8, 2021

Greetings, PWN members and community,

We are writing to you today with big news. Nearly thirteen years into the existence of Positive Women’s Network – USA (PWN), we have transitioned to a co-directorship model. Venita Ray and Naina Khanna will jointly serve as PWN’s first co-executive directors, seeking to stabilize and fertilize a new, transformative organizational structure.

We have made this shift because the co-directorship is a model that is aligned more aligned with our values and that is part of a purposeful commitment to continually re-align our leadership and decision-making structures and practice in service of our values and constituency: women and people of trans experience living with HIV in the United States, the overwhelming majority of whom are Black and brown women.

This transition is also part of an intentional succession planning process to create new and diverse pathways to leadership within the organization and to fortify PWN’s accountability to our base. 

This is a major step for us, and we are very excited about what it means for PWN as a feminist and anti-racist organization. Grounded in that analysis, we believe fundamentally that leadership is abundant. We value collaboration, not competition; sharing power, rather than hoarding power. We believe that the strength of multiracial formations lies in authentic respect for our varied struggles and clear analysis of how resources must be moved to align with our goals for equity and liberation. And we hold at our core the truth that when we uplift Black women, we all win.

This transition to a co-directorship model is one step towards making our commitments to collaborative leadership and Black leadership explicit within PWN.

While a vote by the PWN Board of Directors in February 2021 made the shift in roles official, it was actually the final step in a very intentional process that began months ago, initiated by founding executive director Naina Khanna with the support and guidance of a consultant and several Board members and founding members of PWN, known as the PWN Change Team.

Change Team members included board chair LaTrischa Miles, board members Tana Pradia, Sonia Rastogi, and Marnina Miller, and PWN founding members Vanessa Johnson and Waheedah Shabazz-El, along with Khanna and Ray.

PWN has always been committed to transformational movement building and to challenging hierarchies and structures when they are not serving our people. We will continue to lead and challenge ourselves to live our values of racial and gender justice – internally and externally.

Elevating Black women’s leadership is central to PWN’s future. We recognize that a shared leadership model by a Black woman and non-Black woman of color is not the norm in HIV spaces – in fact it may be seen as an affront to typical hierarchical structures in our field which is often dominated by solo white or non-Black leadership. It is our hope and intent that a co-directorship model will ensure the sustainability of PWN as long as we need to be here and make space for more leadership opportunities for our members.

Going forward, Ray and Khanna will jointly serve as primary points of contact for the organization and make major decisions together. The move to a co-executive director model purposely rebukes the false notion that there must be one person who holds the full picture and decision-making power of the organization. It also recognizes the need to create abundant and diverse pathways to leadership in order to build the leader-full movement the HIV community needs and deserves.

Although Khanna and Ray will serve as the first two co-directors for PWN, this is part of an intentional and planned transition. Khanna plans to step down as co-director first and Ray will stay on to mentor and support incoming leadership. The two will jointly stabilize the new model and continue fostering a healthy, sustainable organization that members, especially those who are Black, Latinx, and/or trans, can confidently step in to lead.

We are aware that co-directing is not easy. It requires from each of us a deep commitment to honest communication, hearing uncomfortable but necessary truths, transparency, ongoing relationship building, authentic reflection, and intention around what it means to nurture a multiracial movement that centers and elevates those communities most impacted by the domestic HIV epidemic: Black cis and trans women. A willingness to hold challenging conversations with care and respect. Courage to engage in generative, principled conflict. And trust that even when we disagree, we are each holding as our highest value a commitment to PWN members.

We enter this new chapter of leading PWN with clear eyes, humility, with tremendous respect for each other, and with a willingness to be held accountable. We have been working for more than two years to build a collaborative leadership relationship, and we are ready to take this step together.

That said, we are engaged in learning and practice around this new model, and we don’t expect to do everything perfectly or you all to trust what this change will mean for each of you. We are counting on our community to support us, to hold us up, and to call us in as needed – individually and together. We know you got us, and we owe you a debt of gratitude for trusting us to do what is needed to prioritize women and people of trans experience living with HIV.

Above all, we want our members to always know that PWN works for them. It is our intention that all members, especially Black members, will see PWN as their organization and see themselves in future leadership roles. This is your organization.

Venita and Naina will host two listening and feedback sessions with our base. We welcome your comments, critiques, and questions about this organizational change. We are here to learn how to support and represent our members.

The PWN members only listening session will be held Friday, March 26, at 5pm EST/4pm CST/3pm MST/2pm PST.